Lubricants in commercial use today are prepared from a variety of natural and synthetic basestocks admixed with various additive packages and solvents depending upon their intended application. The basestocks typically include mineral oils, poly alpha-olefins (PAO), gas-to-liquid base oils (GTL), silicone oils, phosphate esters, diesters, polyol esters, and the like.
A major trend for passenger car engine oils (PCEOs) is an overall improvement in quality as higher quality basestocks become more readily available. Typically the highest quality PCEO products are formulated with basestocks such as PAOs or GTL stocks.
Lubricants are composed of a basestock and additives. Additives are added to the basestock either to enhance an already-existing property, such as viscosity, of base oil or impart a new property, such as detergency, lacking in the base oil. The lubricants are designed to perform a number of functions, including lubrication, cooling, protection against corrosion, and keeping equipment components clean by suspending originally insoluble contaminants in the bulk lubricant.
Polyalphaolefin (PAO) fluids are premium synthetic basestocks and are produced via oligomerization of alpha-olefins, such as 1-decene. 1-Decene feed can be expensive and in short supply. The product obtained by 1-decene feed can have poor low temperature properties. Therefore, generally a mixed feed of C6/C10/C4 or C8/C12 alpha-olefins is used.
Conventional PAOs are produced using promoted BF3 or AlCl3 catalysts. Several companies, including Chemtura, Chevron-Phillips and Ineos produce various grades of conventional PAOs using similar class of chemistry.
Additional references of interest include: U.S. Application Publication No. 2011/0178348; U.S. Application Publication No. 2010/0292424; U.S. Application Publication No. 2009/0036725; Rutgers University, Y. V. Kissin, F. C. Schwab; Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Volume 111, Issue 1, 5 Jan. 2009, pages 273-280; EP 0377306; GB 1043629; U.S. Application Publication No. 2009/0318640; and JP 06313007.
The present disclosure provides many advantages in meeting these needs, which shall become apparent as described below.